Greece will ‘not be treated as a debt colony that should suffer’ – finance minister

Greece isn’t playing negotiating games with the EU, says Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis as he readies to face his counterparts in Brussels Monday, unwilling to agree to more of the same austerity medicine.

Greece is determined not to be “treated as a debt colony that
should suffer what it must. The principle of the greatest
austerity for the most depressed economy would be quaint if it
did not cause so much unnecessary suffering,” Varoufakis
wrote in a New York Times op-ed, published Monday.

The finance minister called the talks between Greece, EU finance
ministers and central bankers, to be resumed Monday, a
“turning point for Europe’s unfolding experiment with
monetary union.”

Greece’s is one of the main players in the eurozone debt crisis,
which began to unravel in 2009 and show the weakness of the then
18-member euro currency. The currency, which began circulating in
1999, was meant to make the EU a financial bloc to rival the US.
But by banding together, no individual country of the union was
safeguarded against the woes of another. In 2009, worries that
Greece would default on its debt forced the EU to bailout the
economy. Two bailouts were paid in 2010 and 2014 totaling €240
billion.

The new Syriza-led Greek government does not agree to the
eurozone bailout under the same constraints as the former
government.

“The great difference between this government and previous
Greek governments is twofold: We are determined to clash with
mighty vested interests in order to reboot Greece and gain our
partners’ trust,” Varoufakis said.

In total, Greece is more than €317 billion in debt, which is more
than 175 percent its annual gross domestic product.

Finances are dwindling. Greece needs to negotiate with EU
policymakers by February 28 in order to receive the next tranche
of bailout funds. Athens and Brussels have been embroiled in
financial rescue package talks since the new government won a snap election on January 25 on the
promise of ending austerity.

Syriza is instead trying to renegotiate its bailout with its
Troika of lenders- the International Monetary Fund, the European
Central Bank, and the European Commission. The Greek government
is asking for more time to negotiate, and wants a six-month
bridging loan, not an extension of the old program, which has
kept Greece in recession for more than 6 years.

No red lines will be crossed, and no games will be played, Greece
just wants to start growing again, Varoufakis wrote.

“I am convinced that we have one option only: to shun any
temptation to treat this pivotal moment as an experiment in
strategizing and, instead, to present honestly the facts
concerning Greece’s social economy, table our proposals for
re-growing Greece, explain why these are in Europe’s interest,
and reveal the red lines beyond which logic and duty prevent us
from going,” the finance minister said.

"I promise you: Greece will then, in six months' time, be a
completely different country,” the Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras told Germany’s Stern magazine over the weekend.